1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to an image processing apparatus such as a copier, a printer, or an MFP (multi-function peripheral) capable of storing and reusing image data input from various paths, and more particularly to an image processing apparatus capable of easily searching for a desired document from a vast amount of image data stored as documents.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years and continuing, image processing apparatuses including copiers, printers, and MFPs (Multi-Function Peripherals) are provided with various functions for satisfying the needs of the user. Accordingly, various image data (data which can be output in the form of images) are input to the image processing apparatus from various paths such as from a scanner or a network connected to the image processing apparatus.
Furthermore, the input image data are stored in a hard disk of the image processing apparatus, a removable recording medium (e.g., an SD (Secure Digital) card), or an outside server so that the image data can be reused whenever necessary.
Such image processing apparatus is often shared by many users. Thus, as the amount of documents stored in the image processing apparatus increases, the burden of searching for a document increases for the user in a case of reusing the document.
In a typical method of obtaining a document from documents stored in an image processing apparatus, a desired document is found by analyzing the content of the document and narrowing down the stored documents by using an obtained word (character string) as a key for the search. Examples of such method are disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos. 11-73415, 2000-331027, and 2003-150636.
However, conventionally, in a case of obtaining a document for reuse with an image processing apparatus (e.g., MFP), the user is required to select a desired document from a list of stored documents displayed by the image processing apparatus. Typically, the image processing apparatus is not equipped with a document searching function. One reason that the document searching function is not provided to the image processing apparatus is the lack of processing ability of the image processing apparatus. However, the method of searching for a document by using a word described in the document as a key for the search may not be suitable for an image processing apparatus (e.g., MFP) which is configured to process input image data. This is another reason that document searching function is not provided to the image processing apparatus.